Allison Shearmur Productions, Beagle Pug Films, Genre Films,
Lily James, Cate Blanchett, Holliday Grainger, Sophie McShera, Richard Madden, Helena Bonham Carter, Stellan Skarsgård, Derek Jacobi, Nonso Anozie
This big budget film is the live action retelling of Disney’s version of Cinderella, the animated feature from the 50’s. Poor Ella (Lily James) loses her mother, and her father remarries and brings home a new stepmother (Cate Blanchett) for her. But when her father falls ill and dies, things get harder for the family and the servants are let go, and Ella is required to be a servant, doing all the work maintaining the house while her stepmother and her two daughters take great pride in torturing her.
What an enjoyable film. I have heard lots of rumblings of how bad this film is and how it was a huge bomb at the box office, although the figures seem to contradict that. However, it probably wasn’t the huge bonanza that most of the studio execs suspected, and I’ve hear rumors of the death of big budget remakes. Another complaint I have heard is that it’s the same as the cartoon story and there was no point to remaking the film. I disagree with both assessments. First of all, the actual Cinderella story “Ashenputtel” by the famous Grimm Brothers is a horrid and gory little tale, although one of their more famous story. Disney really cleaned it up tremendously for younger folks not to give them nightmares. Rogers and Hammerstein gave it the Broadway Musical treatment and that is the other well known version of the story. But I suspect that the Disney version is the one we fondly remember from our childhood. This updated version which is very true to the original with a little bit added is a valuable story with many life lessons that is a film with real family values. Lily James was wonderful as Cinderella, perhaps the best I have ever seen with the naivete and charm and downright goodness that she portrays. She gets hurt and suffers and even gets angry, but has a pure heart that is very well played. Cate Blanchett actually did a really good job as the stepmother as well. She plays it as a bad, greedy, selfish person only concerned for her own daughters, but mostly herself, but is not as “wicked” as some have played it. She did an excellent job. Helena Bonham Carter was an unusual choice as the fairy godmother, and plays it a lot like her role as the Queen of Hearts in the live remake of Alice in Wonderland. But I enjoyed the novelty of a live action version of this story. It is a different experience, and though the mice help Cinderella with her dress are real mice and Lucifer the cat is really a cat. The animals do not talk, unlike the cartoon. In fact, there’s a short on the rental version of the DVD of a feature about all the many animal actors and how they got them working together. The other feature on the rental version is a new Frozen cartoon “Frozen Fever” where Elsa is trying to throw a birthday bash for Anna, but she is coming down with a cold, and and ice queen with a cold is not something very nice. It was, I assume, the cartoon that proceeded the film in the theater. It was well worth watching as well as long as the “Cold doesn’t bother you anyway”. All in all, I really enjoyed this film and I thought it was beautifully done. Cinderella’s ball gown is truly spectacular, and the extra bits that were added in filled in the story. (I have always wondered why the slipper would not fit hundreds of maidens in the kingdom since shoes sizes don’t vary that much, but it is a “magic” shoe after all, and this film explains that. I thought it was very well done and a movie young people are going to like for the exciting story, and the older folks are going to have a great time watching and walking down memory lane. I highly recommend this movie, especially for Disney fans.
EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog
